Our Girl
by missy52061
Summary: Castle & Beckett's second grader gets in trouble at school. For a Castle Monday, even if we have a new episode this week! As always, I don't own Castle, I only wish I did.


Rick Castle looked down at his phone as it was ringing. The caller ID was for the kids' school, so he quickly answered.

"Mr. Castle?" said the voice on the other end. "This is Ms. Little at Marlowe Prep. We've got Hannah in the office here, and we need you or Captain Beckett to come pick her up."

"Is she okay?" Rick replied. He was in worried mode as soon as he heard the news. It was only 1 o'clock in the afternoon, school wasn't over yet.

"Well, there was an incident on the playground. We need to discuss it with you. How soon can you be here?" Ms. Little answered.

"I can be there in about 15 minutes. But again, is Hannah okay?"

"She is. We'll see you then," with that, Ms. Little ended the call. Rick grabbed his keys and his wallet, shot a quick text to Kate with the minimal news, and told four year old Alex they were going for a ride. He was their laid back child, thank goodness. He just dropped what he was doing and put his hand in his father's. Rick's mind was racing as he drove. What the heck was an "incident on the playground"? All of their kids were basically well behaved, but every so often, a piece of Rebel Becks or Rick Rodgers showed up. Did she do or say something? With that last thought, he drove up to the school. He and Alex walked into the school, and were led to the principal's office. He could see Hannah sitting outside. His baby girl looked okay, but he could see dried tear tracks on her face. And then she looked up and saw him and her lower lip trembled.

"Daddy! I'm sorry, I didn't want to do it, but I had to!" she said as the tears started flowing again. He walked over to her and kneeled down to her level.

"Hannah, sweetheart, let me talk to the headmaster and then we'll go home, and you can tell me everything, okay?" Rick's heart was breaking as he looked at her. She nodded her head. "Alex, stay here with Hannah while I go talk to Ms. little," Rick said quietly. He turned and noticed the principal was standing outside of her office.

"Mr. Castle thanks for getting here so quickly. Please, come on in," Ms. Little waited for Rick to enter the office, and she then shut the door. "Let me tell you the facts quickly. Hannah pushed another student during recess today. He landed on the ground, nothing terrible happened to him. But Hannah is upset and she wanted to go home. I have a feeling that the young man in question was doing something and Hannah was defending the victim. And while I'm not happy that she chose to push someone, I am willing to let her off with a warning since she is usually a great example to others," she said.

Rick thanked Ms. Little and went to collect his kids. Hannah was very quiet as they walked to the car, and for the whole ride home. He decided to prepare her favorite dinner of macaroni and cheese. He had texted Kate when he got home to let her know that all was okay, that there was no reason to rush home.

After dinner was over, he asked the boys to go upstairs to play. He and Kate had decided to talk to Hannah, to see if they could get her to tell them what happened. Hannah was sitting between them on the living room couch, and she looked very serious as her mother began to talk. "Hannah, baby, Daddy told me you pushed someone today. Can you tell me what happened?"

"Mommy, Matt was being mean to Henry! He was teasing him because he talks funny. And I told Matt to stop, but he didn't. He pushed Henry but Henry didn't fall down or anything. I was going to get a teacher, but then Matt said even more mean things, and I couldn't stand there and do nothing, so I pushed him too! I'm sorry, Mommy. I know I shouldn't have done it, but at least it made Matt stop," Hannah was crying in earnest now. Kate and Rick looked at each other. It was obvious they were thinking the same thing. Yes, Hannah shouldn't have pushed Matt. But maybe she was trying to stop a bully. Kate took Hannah into her arms.

"Hannah, you're right. You shouldn't have pushed Matt; you should have gotten a teacher," Rick said. "But I understand why you did what you did, and you did the wrong thing for the right reason. Do you understand what I mean?" Hannah nodded "yes" as her mother wiped her tears. "Can you promise me you will get a teacher as soon as Matt starts teasing someone?" Hannah nodded again.

"Sweetie, I'm sorry you pushed him, but I'm proud of you for standing up for Henry. And now I want you to feel better. Do you know what makes me feel better?" Kate asked.

"Ice cream!" said Hannah. "Can we all have some ice cream?"

"Yes," said her dad. "We'll ask Jamie and Alex to join us, okay?"

Hannah smiled and soon the entire Castle family was enjoying their ice cream. Rick pondered that raising kids was always a bit of a surprise. And he wouldn't have it any other way.

**A/N: There was a series of posts on Tumblr where people were posted head canons of Castle, and I posted a list of mine. One was about the future Castle babies, and it inspired this story. **

**A/N #2: I decided to use Marlowe Prep for Hannah's elementary school. Yes, I know that's Alexis' high school on the show, but many private schools in NY are from kindergarten to high school, and so I decided Marlowe Prep is one of them. **


End file.
